Speaker Adjaho can’t wait to be president

Speaker Edward Doe-Adjaho

An opportunity to be president of Ghana for 90 days doesn’t come by frequently. That is why Speaker of Parliament Doe Adjaho is eagerly counting the days. On August 29, the Supreme Court will deliver its judgement on the landmark petition by the NPP leadership challenging the legitimacy of President John Mahama. Although the televised proceedings overwhelmingly points to an outright overturn of the declared results on December 9 2012, no one wants a re-run judgement more than Speaker Adjaho, who would be president for 90 days while the election is being re-conducted.

I can hear him joking in his usual “Pidgin English” to his friends: “I beg, before they give am to Nana, make I chop president for 3 months.” It is unclear what powers he would have as Interim President while Mahama steps down immediately. But friends are saying the duration doesn’t matter to Adjaho, just as long as he gets to rule Ghana.

Then there is also the tribal factor. Ewes have been silently unhappy with the voluminous northward tilt in Mahama’s appointments thus far. One insider from Volta Region chuckled: “we are supposed to be the ones holding this party; now we are largely on the outside looking in – and we have nowhere else to go.” That same official admits that there is little that Interim President Doe Adjaho can do in 3 months to turn the tide.

These ill-feelings, combined with the fact that Adjaho reverts to his still important position of Speaker of Parliament regardless of the outcome of the possible re-run elections, mean that he does not owe Mahama any favors; “Mahama would have to win back his job the hard way,” friends say. Adjaho does not even have to count to ten if his dreams are to come true.